 Holocaust Survivors
say David Irving represents white supremacy and urge
Portlanders to stand up for the truth

By JOHN SNELLof The Oregonian staff

The head of an Albany, N.Y., organization of Holocaust
survivors urged Portland on Thursday to "stand up for the
truth" and debunk the views of revisionist author David
Irving.

Irving, 54, is scheduled to speak Friday night at Mt.
Hood Community College. He has written numerous books about
World War II and Nazi Germany. Irving contends that it's a
"myth" that the Nazis killed 6 million Jews. He also claims
that the gas chambers at camps such as Auschwitz
were built after the war as tourist attractions.

Shelly Shapiro, director of the Holocaust
Survivors & Friends Education Center, said the greatest
threat from Irving's writing is that son may view it as
little more than an alternative view of historical
facts.

"David Irving represents white supremacy in the United
States," Shapiro said at a Thursday afternoon news
conference. "We should look at David Irving as though he
wearing the white hood of the K Klux Klan."

For more than 20 years, Irving has been a best selling
author of popular World War II histories. His credibility
plummeted with the publication of "Hitler's
War," a biography written from Adolf Hitler's
perspective. In it, Irving claimed Hitler never ordered and
had no knowledge of the Nazi program of Jewish genocide, It
later writings and speeches, Irving said he believes the
Holocaust is a hoax initially perpetrated during the war by
British propagandists, and later kept alive by pro-Israelis
to extort reparations payments from West Germany.

"Irving's only credibility is that he is able to sell
controversial books to Americans who want to see another
side in every controversy," Shapiro said. "There is no other
side to the Holocaust."

Shapiro said Irving's greatest effort to sabotage the
memories of the millions who were killed occurred in 1988
when he published The
Leuchter Report.

The report was prepared by a Massachusetts technician who
builds gas chambers, electric chairs and other execution
devices for states with capital punishment.

Leuchter claimed to have conducted a "forensic
study" of Auschwitz and two other death camps and concluded
there was no evidence of cyanide in the walls to support the
idea that the camps housed gas chambers.

Leuchter later signed a consent agreement in Maryland
after he was accused of practicing engineering without a
license.

In it he agreed not to refer to himself as an engineer
any longer and since that time the conclusions of his report
have been refuted by a number of sources.

"This all would be laughable were it not for David
Irving," Shapiro said. Irving published Leuchter's report
himself and wrote a foreword for it in which he argued that
Leuchter's conclusions were irrefutable. Since publishing
The
Leuchter Report, Irving issued a revised edition of
"Hitler's War" and expunged all references to the
Holocaust from it.

Shapiro said Irving generally limits his appearances to
private groups of sympathizers, such as his appearance
last weekend at the Institute for Historical Review, a
"revisionist" group that held Its national conference In
Southern California. She said Irving generally will not
appear In an open forum.

"He must feel pretty comfortable here," she said, adding
that Irving is sophisticated enough to make his message
seductive.

"He's slick," she said. "He doesn't seem like a wildeyed
maniac with a shaved head."